After eight years of the launch of the Digital India programme to enable the digital delivery of services to citizens on July 1, 2015, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved its expansion with a total outlay of ₹14,903 crores.

This would enable the following:

6.25 lakh IT professionals will be re-skilled and up-skilled under the FutureSkills Prime Programme;

2.65 lakh persons will be trained in information security under the Information Security & Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) Programme;

540 additional services will be available under the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) app/ platform. At present over 1,700 services are already available on UMANG; 

9 more supercomputers will be added under National Super Computer Mission. This is in addition to 18 supercomputers already deployed; 

Bhashini, the AI-enabled multi-language translation tool (currently available in 10 languages) will be rolled out in all 22 scheduled 8 languages;

Modernisation of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) which connects 1,787 educational institutions;

Digital document verification facility under DigiLocker will now be available to MSMEs and other organisations; 1,200 startups will be supported in Tier 2/3 cities;

3 Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence on health, agriculture and sustainable cities will be set up;

Cyber-awareness courses for 12 crores college students; New initiatives in the area of cyber security including the development of tools and integration of more than 200 sites with the National Cyber Coordination Centre

Wednesday’s announcement is expected to give a boost to the digital economy of India, drive digital access to services and support India’s IT and electronics ecosystem.